I have a usb thumb drive that I think has some spyware and viruses on it how do I delete all the files or format it without infecting my pc?

well, you could smash it with a hammer, a rather crude way, but effective, otherwise you could take the risk, plug it in and reformat it, why do you think it has multiple spyware and virus files on it, and are they mount activated ?

well i downloaded some files and they contained tons of spyware and trojans so im getting my pc fixed right now and i saved about 1/2 of them on my usb drive so i want to be able to use the drive since it cost $25.00 so its a U3 one and it has mcafee built in to it and it didn’t see anyspyware which im almost certain there is.

and i want to remove Everything and I want it to be like I just bought it

and why was the first answer removed by fluther moderators? there was nothing wrong with that answer was there?

I’d replace the drive and stay away from those kinds of downloads.

[Fluther Moderator:] That user is a spammer. (Banned now.) The link was spam.

oh thanks !

You could try the GParted live CD:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

you can boot into it without having your windows OS running.

If you have a friend that has a mac, you could ask him/her to format the USB stick for you.
In mac OS X, the tool you use is called “Disk Utility” in Applications -> Utilities.
Make sure when you erase it, you choose the format as “FAT”, otherwise it won’t run on a windows computer.
The bonus with this is that any spyware or viruses that are on the USB won’t be able to do anything at all when running mac OS X.

what do you mean ? can’t apples get virusses ? voice of one my surprised cutomers

thanks but i’m just gonna buy a new one the went on sale